The Future of Information Is in the Crowd's Hands

Image by What's In Biz

Thanks to the Internet, I believe that every one of us gets the opportunity to contribute to the information that is made available to people all around the planet in its diverse forms: text, audio, video, photo. This is the concept of crowdsourcing. As the image posted above shows, even though people are disperse, they are all working towards the same goal that is creating valuable content for everyone to use. That is exactly what I am doing right now by writing this post.

How Crowdsourcing Works

Crowdsourcing allows people to have input in the information that is available to others regardless of their age, sex, profession and where they are. In fact, it relies essentially on the content that the crowd delivers thus allowing niche interests to develop and grow because diversity is the essence of the crowd. The rules governing crowdsourcing come down to these 5:

1.The crowd is dispersed
2.The crowd has a short attention span
3.The crowd is full of specialists
4.The crowd produces mostly crap
5.The crowd finds the best things

As you can notice, the last two point are quite controversial so let's have a closer look.

Crowdsourcing and Web 2.0

Well, it is true that at the beginning a most of the stuff that the crowd puts on the Internet is mostly crap. So, you can say that the quality of the information is debatable. However, thanks to the fact that crowdsourcing is based on web 2.0, which basically means that the more people use it, the better is gets, there is a possibility to improve content and thus create value. So, in the end you end up with a great resource of good stuff.

A Living Example of Crowdsourcing

Probably the most known example of crowdsourcing and how it works is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Basically, it is form the people to the people. A person starts an articles about any subject and then other people can add information to it, delete wrong information and rectify... thus improving it and helping in providing accurate information.

Why Crowdsourcing

Besides reducing barriers between people and bringing them around their common interests, Crowdsourcing, has a quasi null cost (all you need is a computer and Internet access which is not a big deal nowadays) and a fairly interesting pay off. In fact, the rich resources you get, the exposure, the freedom and the wide range of talents that it unfolds are hugely satisfying and rewarding.